Methaqualone (Quaalude) rife in SA

> OK, I don't know how I found this out but...apparently, Quaaludes are still (or were until recently) legal and available by Rx in Canada. The article I read said that internationally, they're a schedule II drug; in the US, they're banned outright, but in Canada they're a schedule III (it also said that China still has it available by Rx and India still produces underground Mandrax capsules that are shipped all over the place). Is this true? So...does this mean that the whole "quaaludes are super addictive, blah blah blah" thing was really over-blown? Does Methaqualone offer some sort of therapeutic advantages in certain cases? Could the US experience with quaaludes have been caused in part by reckless prescribing?

Illegal Methaqualone+an antihistamine are widely available in South Africa, where they are Often smoked! with weed-sendind the user into a passed out state for a few minutes, followed by several hours of ttranquality-apparently this is their MAIN drug problem.

The problem with methaqualone is that 300mgs of the stuff is needed for desired effects (large volumes of raw material) as opposed to Diazepam where 20mgs is often sufficient, as usual the illegal drug market favoured less bulky and more potent drugs.